Land Speed Racing, specifically on the Bonneville Salt Flats, is Freiburger territory when it comes to coverage in HRM. He's made the trek from California to Nevada religiously, while practically memorizing the Southern California Timing Association rule book in an endless search for new classes to compete in. Show him a photo of almost any LSR car and he'll tell you what's under the hood and how fast it's been. In short, the guy lives for this sport and its most iconic annual event, Speed Week, but had other corporate commitments this year and had to send me to cover it for HOT ROD.

2/25Frank Silva's AA/Blown Gas Lakester looks like it's just landed from orbit. It's powered by a blown and intercooled Arias Hemi built by Steve Peterson and Ross Ireland, and Frank's son, Frankie, drove the car more than 301 mph at the meet.

An admission of guilt: Before last week, I'd never been to Bonneville and never really paid much attention to land speed racing. I had read about it in magazines, sure, but the premise of the sport seemed so far-fetched and unattainable that I never entertained the thought of attending an event, let alone racing at one. A single day spent roaming the snow-white salt as cars, trucks, and motorcycles ripped by at blinding speeds, plus inhaling the sweet fumes of exhausted race fuel and chatting with the most gracious group of volunteers and fans I've ever met, changed all that. I spent four more days meeting as many racers as possible and soaking up the atmosphere, feeling blessed for the opportunity. I've got the fever now.

The salt crunches softly beneath your sandals at Bonneville, and were it not for the mountains surrounding the venue, the place would look like a playground for lunar rovers, not race cars. Some of the vehicles look like they belong in a science fiction flick and not on a race course, but that's part of the appeal. Somehow each of them fits into this scene. The fenderless lakesters, dart-shaped streamliners, chopped coupes, and roadsters modified until their origins are unrecognizable all have a home at this track and within this family of racers, who inject all their being into creating machines that punish the salt and give an aerodynamic middle finger to the wind. And what is the payoff for all the hard work, ingenuity, luck, and money required to set a record here? A trophy and the respect and admiration of their peers, for there are no monetary rewards for excelling in this racing discipline.

From the outside looking in, this is a sport for madmen, a dangerous and unnecessary exploitation of automotive machinery in a place where Mother Nature surely had different intentions. Once you're sucked in, though, it makes just as much sense to bolt a turbocharger onto a Suzuki compact car and charge toward greatness for miles at triple-digit speeds on this hallowed ground as it does to swap an LS engine into a first-gen Camaro and blast down a suburban quarter-mile dragstrip. The danger of spinning or barrel-rolling helplessly across a racecourse without man-made barriers is ever present, but everyone here believes the pursuit of mind-blowing speed far outweighs the consequences that come with too little downforce and too much horsepower. Like all motorsports, this one generates unbelievable stories of mountainous highs and subterranean lows. Here are a few of my favorite moments from Speed Week 2010.

200 MPH Club Stories
The Bonneville 200 MPH Club is a beast because it's very difficult to get into. Not only do you have to run in excess of 200 mph to be eligible for it, but you don't get the coveted red hat unless you break an existing record at Bonneville at the same time, and you must also meet the mph minimum that is established by the club; sometimes the existing record is the minimum, sometimes it's higher. Consequently, land speed racing is chock-full of stories about racers who tried and failed to get their hat. Of the 487 vehicles competing at this event, only 22 drivers got into the club and only two more got into the vaunted 300 MPH Club. Mike Manghelli (shown here in the White Goose Bar) tunes the White Goose Bar '80 VW pickup now, but it took a decade full of crashes and several other car builds before he joined the club. He crashed in 1994 at 258 mph in a big-block-powered lakester during a qualifying pass that was faster than the existing record. Mike broke his humerus, elbow, and hand and then wasn't able to back up his run due to the accident. He spent the next nine years helping others get into the club in various cars, including Mike Cook's Alfa Romeo. In 2003, he was finally in the right car at the right time and scored his red hat with a 232-mph run in the Wilson Waters highboy.

12/25

Since the very first Speed Week event in 1949, HOT ROD has presented a special award to the team that makes the fastest pass down the salt. Several years ago, the trophy had to be enlarged to fit all the distinguished names onto the brass placards. After working his way up the performance ladder in a pair of roadsters and his most famous race car to date, the Troy Trepanier-built Blowfish, George Poteet strapped into the Poteet & Main D/Blown Fuel Streamliner and made sure his name would be among the greats engraved in brass. With a 5.0L Duttweiler Performance Hellfire V-8 aboard the Speed Demon, George drove the D/Blown Fuel Streamliner to a new record of 404.562 mph. His top time of the meet was 418.486 mph, which is the number that goes on the trophy. The Poteet & Main team got their name on the HOT ROD trophy for the first time in 2009 at 394.346 mph, and this year's run met the goal of getting a 400-plus number engraved on the brass. It's the first top time to exceed 400 mph since Nolan White's 422 mph in 2002.